NEW YORK, NY (FEBRUARY 4, 2022) – Parallel Learning (Parallel), the digital health platform that provides a new way to test, diagnose, and empower students with learning and thinking differences, announced today two new key hires to its growing executive team, in addition to plans to expand its services into Illinois, Texas and Florida next month. Susan Liu joins as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Robert Stager joins as Director of Partnerships, with both executives bringing extensive knowledge to the digital health and education space. The recent hires will support Parallel’s continued growth plans, fueling its mission to support and advocate for children with learning or thinking differences.
Prior to Parallel, Liu was VP of Clinical Operations at Cerebral Inc., a fast-growing online mental health company, where she led the clinical operations and customer service function through the company’s rapid growth from pre-Series A to a multibillion valuation Series C. As an experienced start-up operator with a background in public health and a passion for building teams from the ground-up, Liu scaled the operations to serve over 200,000 patients in less than two years and grew the clinical network from less than 100 to more than 2,000 nationwide in less than one and a half years. In her role as COO at Parallel, Liu will focus on building the systems and processes for scale and growth, in go-to-market operations as well as clinical and care operations.
“I’m thrilled to join the Parallel team and to dedicate my focus to empowering young students—especially during this dire time of need as the U.S. faces a massive education crisis,” said Susan Liu, Chief Operating Officer at Parallel Learning. “As a proud immigrant and a product of the public school system myself, I am passionate about increasing access to care and opportunity for kids of all ages. I look forward to bringing my expertise to this role to help us continue to grow and achieve our goals, and I could not be more excited to be part of this dynamic team.”
Stager joins as Parallel’s new Director of Partnerships, with a strong background in building ed-tech partnerships, particularly in the special education space. He previously held national and regional sales leadership positions at special education tech startups, ONEder and N2Y, and was an early team member of Presence Learning, building its sales and customer success teams. A former public school teacher who started his career in education, Stager will focus on building long-term partnerships with school districts to serve their special education needs.
Parallel’s new hires come nearly two months after its official launch in December 2021, alongside $2.8M in funding—led by Eric Reiner and Dan Povitsky of Vine Ventures, with participation from Global Founders Capital, Great Oaks, Josh Richards, Griffin Johnson and Noah Beck of Gen Z-focused venture capital fund Animal Capital, among others—to accelerate its growth and increase access to special education services for students across the country. Since its launch, Parallel has experienced rapid growth including:
- 200+ percent increase in demand for the services and consultations
- Strong customer retention with 86 percent of clients purchasing multiple sessions
- 100% match rate of providers with clients for assessments, with a 93.3 percent provider retention rate
- Plan to double its provider network in the next month due to increase in demand
The platform is solving one of the most pressing issues facing the American education system by working hand-in-hand with school districts to diagnose students that learn differently. Parallel offers specialized care for the one in five students with a learning or thinking difference at a quicker, more convenient and affordable rate. The company employs licensed psychologists, learning specialists, occupational therapists and more in each state and matches students with providers based on their referral concern and desired services. With Parallel, evaluations begin within days instead of the typical wait of months and cost a fraction of the price of traditional evaluations.
ABOUT PARALLEL LEARNING
Parallel is an all-in-one digital platform for parents and children with learning differences to diagnose, find qualified care providers, receive affordable treatment and discover everything they need to know about learning disabilities. Parallel schedules families with a professional within days, costs a fraction of the price of traditional providers and cuts the average case time for an evaluation in half. All of Parallel’s clinicians and providers are licensed, credentialed and go through a thorough vetting process. The company’s mission is to advocate for those one in five students who struggle with a learning or thinking difference and provide support. For more information, visit www.parallellearning.com
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